Thursday, 19 September 2013

What is important to you?A simple question, but a whole host of complex answers lie under it!

Health, wealth & happiness? Or 'just' loads of money? What about a good job, nice family, time to enjoy things?

Or getting down to more mundane things, what about your mobile phone? or your xbox?

I hope you would all say that someone close to you is important to you? Your mum or dad, maybe? Or a brother / sister? (Even though you may fight like mad!). Or maybe you've got a pet that is important to you?

Or power? Do you want to have a high powered job, where people respect you for what you do? Or maybe you don't want the power and what you want is to do something to 'make a difference'. Maybe work in a charity, helping other people who have nothing?

What about knowledge? Do you want to know as much as you can about something? Become a world expert in something?

But will any of it make you happy?

Think carefully about what makes you happy and what is important to you. The answers to both of these fall into two distinct categories:

There are the things that you maybe haven't got & long for. Maybe it's the latest xbox, or the next iPhone? Or maybe it's something else you are longing for? 'Acceptance', or to be liked? Or to have the 'perfect' girlfriend / boyfriend? There is a huge danger here. Seriously, it's really, really seriously dangerous. If this is the trap that you have fallen into, then you are at serious risk of never really being happy.

You are using the lack of something in your life to explain why you do not feel contented and happy now. But what will you feel when you do obtain your goal? Will you be any different? Will you really be happy, or will you just substitute your 'missing link' to happiness with the next thing you want? It is easy to fall into this trap; I'll be happy when I get a girlfriend/boyfriend. I'll be happy when I get that job. I'll be happy when . . .

But this means that you see life like a journey, with a final destination. At the final destination, you will be happy, because you will have reached your idea of perfection. This means that you are not interested in the journey, but on the end result. This has been written about in so many different ways and, in fact, is a thread through a lot of major hollywood movies! I want to read out to you one piece of writing that explains the danger of being 'destination' focussed. It's called:

THE STATION

By Robert J. Hastings

TUCKED AWAY in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision in which we see ourselves

on a long journey that spans an entire continent. We're traveling by train and, from the

windows, we drink in the passing scenes of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at

crossings, of cattle grazing in distant pastures, of smoke pouring from power plants, of row

upon row upon row of cotton and corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of city skylines and

village halls.

But uppermost in our conscious minds is our final destination--for at a certain hour and on a

given day, our train will finally pull into the station with bells ringing, flags waving, and bands

playing. And once that day comes, so many wonderful dreams will come true. So restlessly, we

pace the aisles and count the miles, peering ahead, waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

"Yes, when we reach the station, that will be it!" we promise ourselves. "When we're

Eat more ice cream. Ride more merry-go-rounds. Watch more sunsets. Life must be lived as we

go along. The station will come soon enough.

So, rather than focussing on the destination, look to the journey! Enjoy the scenery, to follow through the metaphor from that piece of prose. What makes you happy now? What makes you alive now. Right here, right now?

Learn to live in the now, enjoy the moment and seek happiness in what you are doing, here and now.

If you do, then you are being aesthetic. Aesthetic means to be fully alive, with all your senses working at their best, when you are fully present in the moment and resonating with what you are doing at that moment of time.

The opposite of this is to be anaesthetic. when you are deadening yourself to what is around you. When you go to the dentist or into hospital, they give you an anaesthetic, to deaden you, so that you don't feel what they are doing to you!

Well, you can also give yourself anaesthetic, when you switch off from the now and when you deaden yourself to the experiences happening around you.

Some people think it's not cool to be eager and keen to do things, but those people have anaesthetised themselves, have deadened themselves, to protect themselves from something.

Go on, risk it - get excited about what you are doing. Live in the moment, seek happiness in the right things and don't put all your hopes in some golden future!

Sunday, 15 September 2013

For
those who were unable to attend the Parental Information Evening, I promised to
prepare a brief summary of everything we covered, so here goes!

It
seems almost unnecessary to do so, but I do believe that it is important to
always come back to the founding vision for Sandymoor School, because it is one
of the things that makes us different. Everyone is reminded of this vision and
everything we do is measured against it, giving us all a strong sense of focus
for what we are creating here. So:

“Sandymoor School
aims to be an 11-18 school, creating intelligent, employable global citizens
that demonstrate social competence, a desire for learning and respect for each
other and the world around us.”

And
this leads us into thinking about the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of what we are doing,
every day, in school. For about the past 15 years, a local lad, Sir Ken
Robinson, has been involved in the global educational scene, pushing for
schools to change their approach to education, and his thinking is very much in
line with Sandymoor’s vision. The link below is a short (10 minute) animated
version of one of his key talks:

At
Sandymoor, we are also focussed on the ‘soft skills’; not to the exclusion of
knowledge and the importance of developing a rigorous, broad base of
understanding across a wide range of subjects, but as well as. The CBI has
published reports showing that school leavers do not have these soft skills
they require in the modern workplace and it is Sandymoor’s goal to ensure that
our students do leave with them. To that aim, we work with a model first
developed by Professor Guy Claxton:

The
attitude and mind-set that Sir Ken Robinson advocates, along with the
structured approach to helping young people develop better thinking skills,
form the basis for our curriculum structure. However, there are a few more down
to earth elements that also support the development of all our students:

Work Habits:

Sandymoor
students are expected to be fully prepared to work, and have all the equipment
they need to perform their job. We do not want students to think that being
prepared for lessons is acceptable. We also expect them to have pride in what
they are creating and this shows through the presentation of their work – if we
feel that a student could make a piece of work look better and that they have
rushed it, just to get it done quickly, then they will be asked to do it again.

We
do have a policy where it is perfectly ok (in fact expected) to not know
everything – that is, after all, why they are in school! We encourage all
students to ask when they do not understand. If it is not possible to ask immediately,
they are more than welcome to seek out their teacher after the lesson and seek
support, or email them through the school’s systems. No child at Sandymoor will
be made to feel stupid because they asked a question.

Being a Community:

We
expect all our students to get on and respect the differences in others. There
are ‘fall-outs’ and sometimes students act in thoughtless and hurtful ways.
When this occurs, we have a completely zero tolerance policy and every instance
where one of our students is made to feel small, hurt or unliked is dealt with
seriously. We are also likely to deal with any student who stands by and lets
another student be hurt.

We
believe that everyone deserves respect and so when we do follow up poor
behaviour, it is always done behind ‘closed doors’. No student it told off in
front of their peers as this is a humiliating action. We have a policy,
therefore of: Praise in Public –
Reprimand in Private (PIP-RIP). You may have a conversation at home with
your son or daughter about something they saw happen in school and ask “What
did the Teacher do about it?” – the reply will be “Nothing.”, but that does not
mean that nothing has happened. Quite the opposite.

Uniform:

The
Sandymoor uniform is designed to be as simple, neat and effective as possible,
and be as affordable for all as possible. Given that, we expect all our
students to look neat and smart in their uniform; we believe that how you
present yourself says a lot about what you value and we expect our students to
value themselves. Ties should be done up properly and a reasonable length (we
do not use clip-on ties as this is demeaning). Shirts should be white fit well,
with the top button done up. Jumpers, blazers, trousers & skirts should be
in good order and clean. Skirts, particularly, should be of a modest length,
with the bottom of the skirt line around knee-length as a guide. Shoes should
be supportive, comfortable and black, with no bright markings. There are times
when, for various reasons, a student has to deviate from this and providing a
conversation has been had about the reasons why, a temporary compromise is
usually possible.

All
students carry with them a ‘Conduct Card’, showing penalty points issued for
not wearing their uniform correctly or acting in an inappropriate way during
the school day. They also carry a ‘Star Card’ for collecting points for acting
above and beyond.

We
are changing our uniform requirements in respect to the PE kit, but no parent
of existing students will have to pay to purchase our new PE uniform.

Make-up:

We
recognise that for some students, not being able to wear a small amount of
discrete make-up can cause distress. So, rather than having a total ban on
make-up, we allow girls to wear certain elements. The guidelines are explained
to them clearly and are based around helping them feel confident whilst
maintaining a professional, work-place demeanour. The same applies to nail
varnish, which, if warn, must be a single, subtle, colour and cover the whole
nail without chips or flakes.

Mobile Phones:

We
also allow students to carry around with them their mobile phones. They are not
allowed to use them or have them out in lessons (unless the teacher has asked
them to – some mobile phones have very good calculators, cameras, stop-watches,
etc… on them!) and they should be off or on mute (just as if they were working
in an office). If they are going to contact home during the day, we ask that
they let a member of staff know before-hand, just so we are aware.

Term dates / Attendance / Punctuality:

The
term dates have been distributed to homes and we ask parents to be aware of
these when planning family events. Particular note should be made of the
two-week half term in October, providing an extra opportunity for family
holidays, etc.

If
your son or daughter is too unwell to come into school, please ring or email
the school to let us know. We have a policy of ‘First Day Call’ and will ring
through our emergency contact list for you by mid-morning to see where your
child is if we have not heard from you. When they return to school, please
could you also include a signed note confirming the reason why they were off.

For
planned absences, such as medical appointments, please let us know, in writing,
before-hand. There are notes in the back of the planner to help with this.

There
has been a change in the law this academic year regarding the taking children
out of school during term time. In simple terms, this is at the discretion of
the head teacher to allow, but will only be granted in truly exceptional
circumstances. If there may be such a reason, it is important that you book an
appointment to see Mr Green-Howard to discuss it as soon as possible. Failure to do so may now result in a penalty
notice fine of £60 (£120 if not paid within 28 days) issued by the head
teacher.

We
also expect all students to be at their lessons on time, ready to begin
promptly. There are no school bells deliberately, as we want everyone to take
responsibility for their own actions.

Clubs & Societies:

These
occur after 3:45pm and finish off the school day. Students can (& have)
opted into these, and can chose to come home early on a night where there are
no clubs running that they are involved in. However, once signed up to a club,
they are expected to then participate in that club for a minimum length of
time. Registers will be taken and a student missing from a club will be treated
with as seriously as if they had missed a lesson, including a detention. Clubs
run Mondays to Thursdays.

ICT / Internet:

We
would ask that all parents sign up to
ParentMail as this is our main route for communication. If you register
your mobile phone number, then you will receive urgent school messages (such as
snow closure notices). Signing up with an email address as well and you will
also receive electronic copies of everything that is sent home with the
students. ParentMail is also our ‘online school shop’, where you will be able
to top up their lunch money (& see what they have bought for lunch),
purchase extra items of uniform, replace lost equipment and, where appropriate,
pay for music lessons and/or school trips. If you would like support with setting this
up, please contact school and arrange to meet with Mr Fry, our IT/Network
Manager, to sort this out.

Shortly,
we will also be sending out details of another website for parents – My Child At School (MCAS). MCAS is your
portal into the school ‘report’; through MCAS, you will see a summary of your
child’s attendance data as well as their behaviour record (both positive and
negative). Also, after October ½ term, you will see the progress measurements
for all their academic subjects, including end of year targets. As they are
created, PDF versions of the school report (Individual Development Plan, IDP),
will also be available via MCAS.

Alongside
this, your child has access to the school’s Learning Environment, based on the
Microsoft Office 365 suite. Through this, they have an email account, and
access to online versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint to enable them to create
school work without the expense of the home needing to buy the software. This
is a very powerful suite of tools and over time, every subject area will have
all their lesson material on this site, for access outside of school hours.

Parental Involvement:

As
we have said before, we are here for the whole family, not just the child, and
extend a warm hand to all parents. We are here if you need our support over
anything; just ask and everything will be treated in confidence.

Also,
we are always very keen for parental support! In the first instance, we would
love all parents to join our PTA and get involved that way. If you are
interested, please email them at SSCF@sandymoorschool.org.uk

Also,
please come along and support us at our two open events, Wednesday, 18th
September at 5:30pm and Saturday, 28th September at 10:30am.

Finally,
we will be sending out invites in the near future to our first formal evening
Founders Day Celebration evening. Please keep the evening of the 8th
November clear to join us in celebrating the students’ successes over the last
year. We have as a guest speaker the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, David Briggs.
It should be a hugely enjoyable evening.